Green Dreams Organic Farming in East Africa

Gilgil is a town resting on the floor of the Great Rift Valley, about half an hours drive up towards Nakuru from famous Lake Naivasha. The land rises around the town in spectacular volcanic ridges upon which most of our small scale farmers in the area live.
Great volcanic soil enable farmers to produce without much need for artificial inputs, however, water is a problem. Whilst there are a few scenic dams and lush river valleys, due to the deforrestation in the Aberdares area, the rivers now run dry for most of the year.

Transporting products down these perilous ridges is also a huge challenge and is mainly done by bicycle, donkey and of late motorcycle. For large harvests like potatoes, lorries are used, and are more often seen stuck in the muddy gullies which become treacherous during the rain season.

Given the above senario, it’s not suprising that farmers struggling with all of these external factors and infrastructures remain poor most of the year.
In 2006 we took an Organic training program sponsored by BioVision to the farmers in Kigogo. We trained over 60 men and women on organic production emphasising the need to retain and build on soil fertility. Most of the farmers have a mixed cropping system which means there is availability of animal manures, however not all knew how to compost effectively, and some found it less laboursome to simply use artificial fertilizers. Given that an acre of land requires 4 tonnes of compost compared to 50kg of artificial fertilizer, what would you choose to apply under the blazing African sun?

Artificial fertilizers are lighter, can be applied quicker, and produce instant results. How do we then convince farmers that they should look at a more labour intensive and slower form of farming?
In Gilgil many cannot afford artificial fertilizers, so not alot of convincing was needed, just capacity building on effective composting.
No one will work excessively hard unless they get a good enough reward and thus, we set out to find markets for the products coming from the hills. Over the course of the past two years, we have had an intersting stream of organic products coming into our store The Organic Shop, the most famous of which is the Gilgil asparagus. This crop was originally identified due to it’s close resemblance to an indigenous weed in the area. It was soon seen as a cash crop and many farmers were taught how to produce it even though it takes 2 years from seed to viable production!!
When the international buyers eventually stopped purchasing and abandoned the crops, some farmers continued to grow it and began looking for local markets. So what has all of this got to do with rabitts???

Asparagus is harvested every day yet brought down to market every three days. It has a fairly good shelf life and is hardy when being transported (unlike pawpaws It has it’s own niche in the market place as no one else really grows the crop.Gilgil just has the perfect conditions.
It makes logical sense then to figure that if other products could find a niche, be exclusive and of high value, then perhaps all was not lost but rather about to begin for the farmers in the area.

During our training we talked about value addittion and gave examples of organic products including meats , most of our farmers have never been to Nairobi let alone into a supermarket and were very suprised to learn of the possibilities……………….but……………where would they get the knowledge?

About 6 months ago, an elderly man called me and said he wanted to talk to me about rabitts. I immediatly thought ‘Salamonella’!! I’d seen farmers with skinned rabbits in plastic bags festering in the sun at farmers markets .!! None-the-less and not to be put off, the old man and his daughter travelled to Nairobi to discuss the possibilities. I gave them as much information as I could about the cold chain, statutory labelling requirements, slaughter house hygiene etc. The old man asked me to put my requirements in writing, which I did and off they went. I felt mean as the obstacles were simply too high for these guys to meet up in the hills.

So I was pleasantly suprised when last week we recieved our first batch of rabitt meat samples!!! Frozen in half kg packets, labelled and looking very professional!!!

The couple had taken our recommendations to the Government and managed to get an entire project funded that now has 4 farmer groups growing 2000 rabitts!!! ……and not just any rabitts, serious hybrid types too from Denmark and California.

Yesterday we sent out our quality assurance expert Davis Nalika to do an assessment as well as to help the farmers improve on packaing details and as soon as this is done, Nairobi will have a supply of rabitt!!!

Asides from a serious feel good factor, I have learn’t never to underestimate an old farmer.

And I have just learnt that I have met my limit and cannot upload the photos. So have to figure this out but will definitely send some soon!!

On another topic got a mail this morning that said we were listed on Africas top 100 Best Blogs for learning about Africa. What an honour!!!

http://www.bachelorsdegreeonline.com/blog/2009/100-best-blogs-for-learning-about-africa/

When I started this blog, I explained I was an absolute rookie to all things blogging. Today on showing Dominic the blog he reminded me to give an explanation on the dates on the first pictures. Actually, Wakio would be best to explain as she took the first pictures…………..It goes a bit like this……..we didn’t know how to adjust the date on the camera for a few weeks thus all the first pics are dated 2004!!

It really didn’t take 4 years to get this project off the ground though imagine if we took on a dump site the size of Dandora it just might!!

Happy reading………..:)

Su x

The Kibera Youth Reform Group transformed this garbage site

to this lush organic plot!!

105 days from start to harvest!!

The Kibera Youth Reform Organic Farm originally a 3 meter deep garbage dump, is finally only days away from harvest!! The transformation which started in April 2008 has taken a mere three and a half months, prooving anything is possible.
In April, Claire Niala came to me with a proposition. The Kibera Youth Reform Group, a group comprising 70 girls and guys in Kibera who had decided to change their ways of crime, requested assistance with an idea they had. They wished to transform a garbage site into a farm, growing crops for their own consumption as well as for sale if possible.

To begin with, I needed to see the area in question and my friend Wakio Seaforth went into Kibera with Mr Saidi one of the representatives of the group. She returned with the following pictures

From then until now the youth have worked at a terriffic pace to make their dreams come true. Assisted by Dominic Wanjihia who trained them in setting up their drip irrigation system, Johara who arranged the soil tests, Zak who assisted in the early days, Claire who made the connections, raised finance and guided the group with their finances and myself…mainly co-ordinating, planning and advising, the following pictures are a testimony to the youth groups hard work and success.

Dominic always impresses me. No two things are done the same way if he has anything to do with it.
We are growing sunflowers between the veg as part of an experimental solution to cleaning the soil. Rather than the usual stoop and plant , Dom designed an easy planting tool, a plastic hallow pipe with recycled yoghurt pot tied to the top and a stick tied to the bottom. Without stooping all you have to do is jab the stick into the ground to make a hole, take a couple of seed from the pot and drop them down the pipe Done! No back ache farming!

The guys and gals in the youth group are almost fully fledged farmers.

The seedlings are almost ready. What a transformation!! The photos were taken on the 9th of June exactly two months from the date the Youth Reform boys and girls started to clear the dump site. We still have issues with the soil test and will try to intercrop plants that will extract the heavy metals, with food plants. When the crops and extraction plants are mature we will test them to see the effects. Hopefully the food crops will be ok?

Limuru Agricultural Youth Center is located about 30 km outside of Nairobi, in the beautiful highlands of Tigoni. It is roughly 4 km from the ex Green Dreams farm and sits on 40 lush acres of fantastic farming territory. The center is a haven for young agricultural students from all over Kenya. Most of the students have excelled in agriculture in their local districts however are unable to afford a higher education in this field. The center was founded to fill this niche starting off 40 years ago with 45 students growing forty years on to teaching 200 students annually.

The school curriculum teaches mainly conventional farming practices. After visiting a few times last year as well as hosting students on the Green Dreams farm during their practical attachment time, and recognising the huge potential for organic production, I spoke with the Principle Mr Henry Kirii and asked him if we could assist with adding an organic component to the center. Henry was ecstatic at the idea as he has a passion for organic and is a regular reader of our magazine The Organic Farmer.

As we walked around the school premises I realised the potential for not only teaching our future agriculturalists organic farming methods, but also how to use affordable appropriate technologies, how to develop their entreprenuerial skills, and also how to assist with income generation for the school via sales of their organic products.

Asides from the land allocated to crop production,the center also has a small dairy herd, a rabbit breeding section,a bio gas plant (the second ‘functional’ one I have seen in the country), a piggery (organic bacon )(sp),ample water, incredibly willing and dedicated staff and 80 permanent students (which I relate to 80 managers………all managing their own plots)

As we closed down the Green Dreams farm, we donated drip irrigation and water tanks to the school as well as 6 Toggenberg dairy goats. We will now help the school utilise these assets in their organic section and will support them with markets for their products. The project is already underway as I write. Stay posted!

The soil tests were abysmal. Two samples were taken each representing half of the field. The field was transected into two halves, A and B. Then using a zig zag pattern, 30 soil samples from a depth of 30 cm were collected from each side. These samples were put into 2 especially designated bags and shaken. A single sample was then taken from each bag and taken to the labs. (We used this method as soil testing is hugely expensive. Thankfully the lab did our tests for free though they would have cost $125.00

The results can be seen on the attachment.soil-tests-kibera

The picture shows the clear separation between two soil types. The grey soil (closest) was brought in a year ago from a construction site.You can also see the office block at the far end and the area of space beside it just at the end of our planting beds, designated to be a community center.

Our samples were high in Zinc, Boron, Copper and Lead!! The sample that had the largest portion of the ‘construction site soil’ was the worst. The other sample wasn’t as bad but was still a little alarming.
I feel the contamination in the second sample was from the ‘construction site soil’ which due to the method we used in collecting the soil samples was in a lower percentage. I’m hoping that this is the case and to try to prove this we are now doing another test on the red soil area.

We have consulted with a few experts on how to decontaminate the soil, Anne Bruntse has advised us to grow sunflowers and indian mustard for a season, and then to destroy the crop………somehow…..
I will discuss further with her today over lunch…….

Our options are 1) To remove the soil 2) To redesign the plot and plonk the community center on the bad soil which will allow us to use their good soil for the farm. 3) To grow sunflowers and indian mustard. The problem here is these plants will be consumed as we are in the slums. It would look beautiful but would be dangerous.

I think we will probably go with relocating the community center and growing right up to the office block. It will mean rethinking the seed bed area, which ironically is already where we would need it if we have to change! So on the positive side of things, we are actually ahead of schedule

Meanwhile we have all learnt something new……..sunflowers and indian mustard extract lead and zinc from the soils!

Fingers crossed that the new test will come out in our favour!!

The guys on the ground who are relentlessly transfoming this dump site in Kibera into an organic farm.

Pic 1 Zakayo Simel, husband to Kendi (both working for Green Dreams Ltd) parents of beautiful Vanessa (3yrs).

In 2005 twelve of the employees at Green Dreams were couples!!! Zak who was in charge of deliveries met Kendi who was working on the farm side of the operations. They fell in love and the rest is history! Zak is soon to be in charge of our local sales distribution and expansion and Kendi currently runs The Organic Shop, almost single handedly and very competently. As the expansion plans are being drafted, he is working in the field, teaching and aiding the Kibera Youth Reform group set up their organic farm.
Zak is also keeping a photo log, we shall have him blogging soon.
The second picture is Mohamed, his t.shirts tells us he is a devote Arsenal fan! You can hear Mohamed on the earlier posted pod cast talking on behalf of the youth group and their endeavour to leave their ways of drugs and crime.
The geese in the photo are pretending to be cool and friendly.

Today the children of our organic farm had their first lesson in planting as the adults watched and learned through their childrens mistakes. We planted quite a variety of crops, some of those we had seen growing in the site as opportunistic plants, pumpkin, aubergine, amaranthus and others, cabbage, kales.

The kids were great. We had them demonstrate what they knew. One little fellow poured half a pack of seed into a hole whilst another made a row of holes and poured slightly less into each. It was interesting watching the swift changes in behaviour that came about with a little instruction from Zak.

The seed beds were prepared in blue crates, recycled from a Dutch importer of strawberry plants. Mohamed and Zak had selected the most appropriate soil from the location, finding red soil where most of the earth is grey black cotton like clay. The soil was alive with earth worms which is always a good sign!

We had 6 crates lined up very smartly, with children decorating the fringes, sticks in hand drawing drill lines for the seed.

As the earth in the crates was a little too damp thus clumpy and sticky, it wasn’t long before the kids found their fingers worked better than the sticks. They were so cute, working ever so diligently as they sprinkled the seed along their drill lines, often ending up with a mass of seed stuck to the end of their fingers.

The children were told to look after thier seeds and to check in on them every so often to make sure they didn’t dry out. They were buzzing with excitement which Joshua (My 15yr old nephew……..le journalist extrodinaire) managed to capture on tape as they giggled, sang, rapped and took over the show.

We were quite a contingent, Paula my sister, Joshua her son,Wakio our friend, Claire the special girl who brought us to this project, Dino -Kenyas David Attenborough and Zak my eyes and ears in the field. Dino spent the entire time scounting the site for insects, coming up with an incredible assortment ranging from butterflies to dragon flies, both good indicators of a balancing ecosystem. Joshua spent his time interviewing everyone like a true professional, hopefully we will have some of these recordings posted as a podcast in the near future……………………..when I figure out how to do it!! Both Paula and Dino took many photographs that we will have to post in an online album too…..again, when I figure out how to do it.

Technorati : Africas largest slum, David Attenborough, Dino, Kibera, Organic, Paula, Seed, butterflies, dragon flies, garbage site reclamation, organic farming